Mixed salad with pumpkin seeds and feta

Blandad sallad med pumpafrön och fetaost

Salads are very popular in Sweden including as an accompaniment to hot food. Indeed, Swedes tend to eat salad more often than cooked vegetables and so in Vår Kok Bok, Sweden’s most popular cookery book, there are more recipes for salads than for vegetables.

Because there is such a wide variety of salads in Sweden there is no such thing as a typical Swedish salad to match a Greek salad. Nonetheless, there are a few characteristics of salads in Sweden including:

- they nearly always include a dressing or vinaigrette (Swedes like sauces),- herbs are nearly always added (dill is particularly popular),- raw vegetables (often grated) are usually included,- seeds are frequently added (Vår Kok Bok devotes 2 pages to seeds),- fruit is often added as a garnish,- where cheese is included it is nearly always feta, probably because the saltiness appeals to Swedes’ palate.

This particular salad meets many of the criteria above and can be easily adapted to suit your own tastes and what is available, but I hope you think it is a good starting point for your own creation. John Duxbury

Summary

Ingredients

1

red leaf lettuce, such as Lollo Rosso

1

medium/large beetroot, grated

100 g

(½ cup)

feta cheese, cubed

75 g

(½ cup)

pumpkin seeds (toasted pumpkin seeds)

150 g

(½ cup)

cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 tbsp

fresh dill, roughly chopped

Dill vinaigrette

3 tbsp

extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp

balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp

fresh dill, finely chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together.

2. Place the lettuce leaves in a salad bowl.

3. Add the grated beetroot, tomato and half of the roughly chopped dill.

4. Drizzle over half the dressing and toss to evenly coat.

5. Add the feta, the pumpkin seeds and the remaining dill.

6. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the salad.

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